Blogoversary

It passed unnoticed.  I forgot entirely.  It was on July 27, 2008 that I started this blog.  I’m not going to go all sentimental and write “What I’ve learned from blogging” or anything like that, but I thought I should note it nevertheless.

So I will invent a self-indulgent blog meme.

Search the following words on your blog:
– plural
– pride
– goo
– basset hound
– excellent

Pick one random sentence from one of the posts dredged up by the keywords, and link it back to the original post.

Then you should tag people, but I probably won’t do that.

Here we go:

Plural:

…when you try a creepy line on a woman and she turns you down, it isn’t necessarily because she’s a cold-hearted bitch… (link)

Pride:

He doesn’t understand birthdays, of course, and has celebrated his mainly by sleeping through it… (link)

Goo:

…taking peoples’ booze away in this situation is just asking for revolution… (link)

Basset Hound:

Tags which actively decrease blog traffic: aww, criticism, jesus, lazy, meta, opera –
market research is *EVERYTHING*. (link)

Excellent:

…if they do strike…moonshine may be the only way…(link)

OK, enough, enough.  If anyone is still reading this, let me be mushy for a moment and thank you for allowing me to become part of your brain for just a little while.  It’s been fun.  Not that I’m stopping or anything – I plan on continuing to blog until telepathy evolves.

Onwards.

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Addendum

Two minor things:

– If you listened to last week’s Complaining With Kay! (and if not, why haven’t you?), you will recall my little theory about the persistance of the “Golden Age” meme – why we’re always thinking, “Gee, if we could only go back to a simpler time, like x number of years ago”.  My theory – which I may have stolen from someone else, I can’t recall – is that we really want to go back to the free and irresponsible days of our childhoods.  It wasn’t a simpler and more innocent time.  It was a simpler and more innocent time FOR YOU, but since we’re self-centred bastards we apply our own experience to the world in general.

OK, I thought of a little case in point. One of my young students is involved with a children’s theatre company.  So far I have seen two of their shows.  Each was a musical based on a children’s TV show from the late seventies/early eighties.  The artistic director is a man in his late thirties.  Hmmm….do you think he’s maybe using his position to relive his childhood?  Not that he’s making any Golden Age claims or anything, but still.

– I sent a pointed but witty note to the editor of Toronto Life about their plagiarism of my Hamlette review.  Have not heard back.  If they don’t respond by the end of business on Friday I’m posting it here, on Facebook, and everywhere else I can think of.

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I’ve been memed!

I’ve been tagged!  Thanks to Jack Sender.

WHAT IS YOUR CURRENT OBSESSION?

Hmm.  Podcasts.  I listened to all 33 episodes of “Evo at 11” last week, for example.

DO YOU NAP A LOT?

I am almost incapable of napping.  I have to be UNBELIEVABLY exhausted to sleep during the day, like jet-lag or no sleep at all the previous night exhausted.  I am, however, very fond of lying down and doing nothing for long stretches of the day.

WHO WAS THE LAST PERSON YOU HUGGED?

Person?  My husband.  Creature?  My dog Gus.  He likes to be hugged.

WHAT’S FOR DINNER?

I’m not sure – I’m really busy with lessons cancelled because of Easter today, so I might get something on the road.  Or I might wait until after rehearsal and have chicken wings.  I’m not picky.

WHAT WAS THE LAST THING YOU BOUGHT?

Jesus…that would have been on Thurdsay…Pants.  I needed nice pants because I was singing the national anthem at a hockey game and since I’ve lost about twenty pounds since Christmas none of my clothes fit me.  It’s either pants or alcohol.

WHAT ARE YOU LISTENING TO RIGHT NOW?

Right now?  The audio podcast of “Democracy Now”.

I told you I was obsessed with podcasts.

WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE WEATHER?

I like the fall, when it’s about twelve degrees and overcast and you can smell winter coming.  I also like the very beginning of spring when the air is still crisp and the little purple crocuses start to come up.  I don’t like very hot or very cold weather.

WHAT’S ON YOUR BEDSIDE TABLE?

My nightguard.  A copy of Cloud Atlas.  I think the EEE is on it right now, though I haven’t used it in a week or so.  Ummm…probably some earrings.  At night, a water bottle.

SAY SOMETHING TO THE PERSON WHO TAGGED YOU:

How do you manage to keep four blogs up to date??????????

IF YOU COULD HAVE A HOUSE TOTALLY PAID FOR, FULLY FURNISHED ANYWHERE IN THE WORLD, WHERE WOULD YOU WANT IT TO BE?

Ooo, good question.  New York, but about forty years ago.  Or maybe Paris.

FAVOURITE VACATION SPOT?

I have been on a total of four vacations as an adult; I would have to say Germany, because that’s where two of them were, so I must like it.  Nice biking trails and cheap beer.  What else do you need?

NAME THE THINGS YOU CAN’T LIVE WITHOUT.

Sleep.  Leisure.  Music.  Dogs.  Carbs.  I would say alcohol, but I have successfully lived without it in the past and will do so again.

WHAT WOULD YOU LIKE TO HAVE IN YOUR HANDS RIGHT NOW?

A letter of offer for me to sing Zerbinetta with a major opera company.  Or a small one.  Or Ariadne Auf Naxos – On Ice!.  Again, I’m not picky.

WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE TEA FLAVOR?

I’m more of a coffee person, but there’s a really nice almond tea Celestial seasonings puts out.

WHAT WOULD YOU LIKE TO GET RID OF?

I’m going to take this two ways: personally, about ten pounds and a penchant for laziness; globally, unthinking wastefulness and overconsumption.
IF YOU COULD GO ANYWHERE IN THE WORLD FOR THE NEXT HOUR, WHERE WOULD YOU GO?

Back to bed?

No, seriously, I would say a little coffee shop in New York.  It’s just off the Bowery, around the corner from a little hostel I stay in when I go there, on a beautiful little Noho street.  It’s cheap and the wireless is free, and in the summer you might see Natalie Portman pass by, going shopping.

WHAT DID YOU WANT TO BECOME AS A CHILD?

In this order: a paleontologist, an actress, a mystery novelist, a concert pianist, an opera singer.  Still working on the last one.

WHAT DO YOU MISS?

I miss the sense of time lasting forever that children have – that long summer days felt like they’d never end.  Now I feel like time is constantly slipping away from me.  I also miss not having to support myself financially, but oh well.

WHAT ARE YOU READING RIGHT NOW?

I just finished a truly awful mystery novel by Linda Fairstein and haven’t started a new book yet.  I should really go back to Cloud Atlas.

WHAT DO YOU FEAR THE MOST? (Andrea’s question)

I have lots of fairly petty fears – food poisoning, sudden death, bankruptcy, being wrongfully arrested for a crime I didn’t commit, social humiliation – but I think my biggest fear is that I’ll never achieve what I want to achieve in life, never reach my full potential.  That’s what keeps me going and makes me stretch myself and do things that make me uncomfortable, but that I need to do to do the things I want.

FAVORITE MOVIE THIS PAST YEAR? (Joanne’s replaced question)

2008?  Wall-E.  2009?  I actually haven’t seen a new film this year.  Isn’t that unbelievable?  Unless you count Smokey and the Bandit. I watched it on Sunday.  Best film of 1977!
FAVORITE BOOK YOU’VE READ THIS YEAR? (Joanne’s question)

Eminent Victorians.

WHEN DID YOU FIRST KNOW YOU WERE A WRITER?

Am I writer?  OK, I guess when I was about nine.  I won an award for a poem I wrote about a strike killing another bird.  Really.  It was probably unintentionally hilarious, like everything else I write.

My question: IS IT TIME YET?  No, that’s no good.  IF NOT NOW, WHEN?  No, scratch that.  OK: DO YOU THINK BRAS ARE ACTUALLY NECESSARY, OR JUST THE 20TH/21ST CENTURY VERSION OF THE CORSET?

My answer to that one is “It depends on the size of your boobs.  As I lose weight I lean more to the latter.”

Now let’s see if I can look in my magic mirror and find eight people to meme…

I see Joey Devilla.  I see Justin Beach.  I see Alex Eddington…he doesn’t really blog anymore, but I think he’ll like it.  I need to look at my blogroll…ok, now how about Absolutely Miles Away , Scot, Nathan and Dana, Lirone, and that’s all I’ve got.

Wow, that was a massive meme.

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